Episode 12 – "The Echoes Beneath the Ashen Vale"
From the novel: Reclaimer of the Forsaken Realm
---
The Valley of Silence
The journey to the Ashen Vale was unlike any road they had taken.
For days, the trio had walked through mist-veiled hills and forgotten trails, where even birds dared not sing. The further they traveled, the more the land lost color—greens faded to grey, and rivers grew stagnant and still. Even the air grew thick, as though the realm itself held its breath.
When the final hill was crossed and they saw the Vale for the first time, none of them spoke.
It was a place devoured by a curse so ancient and deep that even time dared not pass.
The valley stretched wide beneath a choked sky of swirling violet clouds. A cold wind whispered through brittle branches of petrified trees. Ash fell like snow, coating the bones of long-forgotten buildings—remnants of a thriving settlement now entombed in silence.
Zane's boots crunched against the layer of soot as he stepped forward, his breath fogging in the unnatural chill. His fingers brushed the grimoire at his side, the dark leather warm to the touch. It pulsed with a familiar energy—watchful, alert.
> "This place..." he murmured, "it's as if the world gave up on it."
Kaela was at his side, her cloak drawn tight against her form, blue mana threads swirling in her irises as she scanned the surroundings.
> "Not death. Worse. The echo of it. Like something wants to remember... and make us remember too."
Behind them, Rhain held his greatblade resting across his shoulder, scanning the ruins with grim silence.
> "This used to be Elaran's Rest," he finally said. "A village of scholars and Arcanists. It was known for harboring forbidden knowledge... until one night, every soul vanished. Not a trace left. Not even a scream."
Zane crouched by a shattered arch, his fingers brushing off the dust. Etched into the stone was a jagged rune—an eye pierced by spiraling fangs.
The symbol burned with dark familiarity.
> "Vel'Torak," Zane whispered aloud, calling inwardly, "what is this place?"
The voice of the Forgotten One, ever ancient and serene, stirred from within the Grimoire.
> "A reliquary of despair. The Third Seal's echo lingers here. This place became the coffin for its remnants—fragments of fear, grief, and corrupted memory. They were not merely victims. They were offerings."
Zane's eyes narrowed.
> "Then we need to unmake whatever holds this place together."
But the earth had already stirred.
---
Ash-Born Wraiths
A tremor rolled through the vale—subtle, then violent. Buildings cracked. Ash billowed upward like smoke. Kaela's wind magic flared around her as she screamed,
> "Form up!"
The ground beneath them ruptured.
From the cracked soil crawled shadows—twisted husks of humans, their faces hollowed into screaming masks of soot and grief. Their bodies glowed faintly with corrupted mana, and their movements were jerky, erratic—like puppets mimicking pain.
One charged Zane with unnatural speed.
> "Vel'Torak's Gate—summon!"
Zane opened his grimoire, and from within it, a geyser of black mist erupted.
> "O Harbinger of the Drowned Halls, rise—VOR'MORAN!"
The water-summon emerged—a drowned knight clad in barnacle-covered armor and dragging a rusted anchor. With a bone-chilling cry, it unleashed a wave of cursed seawater, dissolving several wraiths.
But for every one that fell, five more rose.
Kaela's wind discs carved through the enemy with deadly precision, and Rhain's blade cleaved a dozen with each swing—but the tide was unending. The valley had become a battlefield, and they were sinking in the center of it.
> "We're not going to outfight this!" Kaela shouted. "We have to find the source!"
Zane clenched his fists. The pulses—those heart-like beats beneath the earth—were growing stronger.
Something beneath the ash... called to him.
---
The Vault Beneath
Guided by Vel'Torak's whispers, they followed the pulses to a crumbled sanctuary at the Vale's center. The temple's interior was drenched in rot—moss blackened with mana-sickness, the air thick with the coppery scent of blood.
At its heart stood an altar, surrounded by decayed statues of long-forgotten gods. One statue remained whole—its face a blank, weeping mask.
From the base of the statue, the floor spiraled downward into a hidden stairwell. The path led into the dark. Zane lit a flame in his palm, the dim orange glow casting flickering shadows against the stone.
> "This is it," he whispered. "Where the Third Seal fractured."
They reached the bottom—a circular chamber that pulsed with unnatural energy. In the center stood a throne of bone and ash, and seated upon it... something that was once a man.
Its skin was cracked porcelain. Its eyes leaked ink. And around its neck hung a fragment of a shattered seal, blackened and humming.
It smiled.
> "You bring echoes of the past. And you will join them."
---
The False God
The guardian stood, and the world screamed.
The very air warped as gravity inverted. Kaela staggered. Rhain's greatblade trembled in his hands. And Zane...
Zane's head split with voices.
> "You failed your world. You failed her. What makes you think you deserve to reclaim anything?"
He saw visions of his death again—his sister's fading smile. The car crash. His blood on her lap.
He fell to his knees.
> "I am not your puppet!" he roared.
Vel'Torak's voice returned—stern and sharp.
> "Then stand, Reclaimer. Show it the soul that defies fate."
Zane drew upon the darkness—not to be consumed, but to wield it.
> "Vel'Torak's Accord—Sovereign Binding!"
Chains of shadow wrapped around him, his form cloaked in black fire. His summon, Vor'Moran, fused with him, becoming his armor—his strength.
The false god attacked, its voice a wail of a thousand regrets. But Zane fought with purpose—each strike not just for survival, but for salvation.
And with one final blow, he drove his sword through the guardian's seal fragment.
---
The Seal Shatters
The echo shrieked and disintegrated. The curse over the Vale broke. The sky cracked open, letting in faint golden light. The ash began to fade, carried away on a breeze that hadn't existed in centuries.
They emerged from the vault to find the Vale... still ruined, but breathing again.
Kaela picked up something near the altar—a stone tablet with an inscription glowing faintly.
She read it aloud:
> "One who breaks three Seals shall draw the gaze of the Silent God."
Zane's breath caught.
Three Seals now. Three curses broken. Three fragments lost to darkness.
And now... something ancient was watching.